American Ninja 4: The Annihilation

Synopsis

CIA agent Sean Davidson and his sidekick Carl are sent into the stronghold of sadistic British ex-soldier Mulgrew to rescue some Delta Force commandoes who have been captured and tortured. When Sean, Carl and pretty doctor Sarah run into some problems, Peace Corps vet Joe Armstrong is lured out of retirement to stop Mulgrew's plan to explode a nuclear device in New York City.

CIA agent Sean Davidson and his sidekick Carl are sent into the stronghold of sadistic British ex-soldier Mulgrew to rescue some Delta Force commandoes who have been captured and tortured. When Sean, Carl and pretty doctor Sarah run into some problems, Peace Corps vet Joe Armstrong is lured out of retirement to stop Mulgrew's plan to explode a nuclear device in New York City.

Cast

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Harriet Deltubbo 7 / 10

A really good sequel to the series!

In part 4, the two American Ninjas, Joe Armstrong and Sean Davidson,
team up to do battle against a terrorist and his band of Ninjas. It is
always in people's nature to put down great things and to nitpick or
sometimes just be plain mean. No matter what anyone says, this is
utterly fantastic, an eye-popping cinematic treat. From an artistic
standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I
didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story,
which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them. I am not saying
the film is a classic, but I love it. My rating ends up being 7 out of
10.

Reviewed by alucard_castlevania86 8 / 10

Not What I expected But Still Good

After a quite disappointing third sequel, the fourth one did bring back
some grace into the franchise (eventhough it didn't work out as I
hoped). Steve James resignation for the fourth sequel (and if I'm not
mistaken, this film was made before he passed away) in my opinion was
due to the fact that the director decided to bring Dudikoff back after
a setback in the third installment

For me, the most interesting but could have used a little bit of
polishing up in the film was the plot itself. A group of soldiers gets
captured by an Arab and English terrorist building a bomb. The American
government then sends Sean Davidson (David Bradley) to try and handle
the situation and when he fails as well, they finally the send in the
back the original kickass ninja pro Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff)
into the action since it was sort of like when everything else fails,
Joe Armstrong doesn't

This was a pretty interesting sequel and probably the 2nd best of the
entire series behind Annilation. To get to this film, I have no real
idea why Dudikoff agreed to return back to this fourth installment
(maybe he did it just for the sake of the fans of the franchise) but
thankfully, he really brought the life back into the series (and for
fans like myself) even though he didn't seemed like he was in the mood
of acting in this sequel. David's character in this sequel in my
opinion was far more respectable than in the third one. He might have
done a decent if not good job on the 3rd sequel but in my opinion, his
performance here as the 2nd leading actor was way better since he
really looks more of a ninja expert in this one compared to the third
installment

However, there were a few minor complaints that I have for the film.
First off, I expected Dudikoff and Bradley to team up together and
become buddies like almost immediately in the film but sadly this did
not happen for until like the final 20 minutes of the film. The final
fights from both sides (Dudikoff's and Bradley's) were not really that
entertaining either since Bradley only had to fight a chicken whuss and
Dudikoff once again made an Arabic ninja (whose even more quite in the
film than Michael was throughout the film) look like a kindergarden
amateur

Another complaint that I would like to bring up (although minor) is
that I think that it felt like pointless having the scene where Joe was
making his weapons (the sword and shurikens) and holding up the sword
in front of his face like it was the most important possession that he
ever had but in the end, he just fought the enemies with his own bare
hands and never used them at all throughout the ending of the film. I
think that maybe the director had accidentally forgotten about that
part which was why we never got to see Dudikoff using his weapons in
the end.

Another part that I have to complain was that they never really told
the story of how Joe (Michael) and Sean (David) became friends in the
first place and all in all, I felt like maybe this was more of like
shrink and squeeze in as much as possible kind of plot story than the
one that they had originally intended to create

However, these flaws did not ruin the film too much since I felt it
really did make up for the rather disappointing third sequel. All in
all, I would really recommend this to all American Ninja fans out there
and anyone else who just wants to spend three hours of their time
watching some mindless but still a rather fun action movie

Reviewed by Frank Markland 3 / 10

Pretty routine chop-socky

Michael Dudikoff returns as Joe Armstrong, the original American Ninja
(Who doesn't even show up until half way) who is forced into single
handedly rescuing a delta force team as well as the other American
Ninja(David Bradley) after the ninjas provide too much even for him.
American Ninja 4 walks the fine line between guilty pleasure and just
plain bad. There are moments of sheer stupidity that you just can't
help but love the antics. For example the movie asks us to believe that
an Arab terrorist would have ninjas guarding him. Or that a gang of Mad
Maxish rebels couldn't overthrow the Arab terrorist and his minions
until the American Ninja (The one played by Dudikoff) arrived plus the
bad guy's army actually takes the time to try and arrest what looks to
be a thousand rebel soldiers armed with machine guns and axes. The most
ridiculous moment arises when Dudikoff catches an arrow in his mouth
which he then uses to stab a ninja in the neck with. (Take that James
Bond!) American Ninja 4 does have slightly more life in it's fight
sequences than American Ninja 3 but really American Ninja 4 is a
sub-par effort in all respects as the action sequences while competent
are filmed with lack of inspiration and imagination. Still the movie
has just way too many unintentionally amusing moments which almost (but
not quite) save the day. American Ninja 4 also becomes a laugh riot due
to some of the dialog handled with astonishing straight faced
seriousness. For example the Arab terrorist and his sidekick James
Booth are excited about the nuke that fits in a briefcase, to which the
Arab actually activates it and lets it tick down to 1 second which then
has the biggest howl of the movie. "It fills me with ecstasy to know
that I was one minute from meeting Allah!" However he never elaborates
if he means the drug or happiness in general. When Dudikoff finally
blitzes the Arab's stranglehold, the Arab runs to the helicopter which
leads to another howler of dialog. "Where we headed?" "MECCA!" It was
classic moments like this made me enjoy the cheese of this bad ninja
movie. Also of note is that Dudikoff and Booth (The best thespians in
the movie) give performances of such contempt that is also vaguely
amusing. The disinterested performances are still better than any other
performance in the film. My wife who is a good sport, sat through this
with me and said the funniest remark. "How lame of a ninja do you have
to be to wear a bright yellow ninja suit."